LeasePlan profits grow 7% to £388 million

Continuing strong margins on lease services fuelled a 7% year-on-year rise in profits to £388 million for LeasePlan in 2016.

Announcing its annual results, the company said its fleet grew 8% from 1.553 million to 1.674 million during the year, with the SME and private lease segments being the main contributors to this growth. Total assets increased 11% to £9.37bn.

A LeasePlan statement said the SME growth has been fuelled through a network of brokers and through telesales.

It continues to see growth in private lease through direct sales as well as through retail partners. Private lease is growing particularly well in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK.

A spokesman said the corporate segment also continued to grow during the year both in number of leased cars as well as in consultancy services.

Tex Gunning, CEO of LeasePlan, added: "Our strong underlying performance over 2016 and our solid financial position at year-end demonstrate the key strengths of our business.

"We have a strong track record of more than 50 years of market leadership and we are well positioned to further capitalise on the opportunities the mobility landscape offers.

"We are shifting from a multi-local organisation to become a fully integrated organisation: One LeasePlan.

"We are focused on leveraging our scale, creating global centres of excellence to improve efficiencies and developing a consistent and aligned approach across our entire organisation.

"We aim to target the most attractive and profitable regions and customer/product segments.

"Acting as One LeasePlan, we want to unlock the full potential of the group and deliver more value for customers and our investors.”

LeasePlan has also appointed two new managing board members. Danielle Pos is the company's new chief legal and compliance officer and Yolanda Paulissen is the new chief strategic finance and investor relations officer. Both functions are new to the the company.

The composition of LeasePlan’s managing board is now: